Manufacture of tubular articles.



No. 735,936. BATENTED AUG. 11, 1903. G. G; & R. 0. BLAKEY.

MANUFACTURE OF TUBULAR ARTICLES.

APPLICATION FILED NOV.1, 1901.

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NITED STATES IPatented August I1 1905.

I PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE G. BLAKEY AND ROBERT O.- BLAKEY, OF PITTSBURG, PENN- SYLVANIA.

MANUFACTURE-OF TU B U LAR ARTICLES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 735,936, dated august11, 1903. Application filed November 1, 1901. Serial No. 80,744. (Nomodel.)

To otZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, GEORGE G. BLAKEY and ROBERT O.BLA EY,citizens ofthe United States, residing at Pittsburg, in the county of AlleghenyandState of Pennsylvania,haveinvented or discovered new and usefulImprovements in the Manufacture of Tubular Articles, of which thefollowing is a specification.

In the accompanying drawings,which make part of this specification,Figure I is a perspective view, partly broken away, showing an ordinaryblank plate or strip of iron or steel. Fig. II is aside elevation,partly broken away, of the shear mechanism during the operation ofbending and clipping the end or side of a strip. Fig. III is a sideelevation of an arc-shaped die, showing the clipped and partly-bentstrip in position to be bent into annular form. Fig. IV is a sideelevation of the arc-shaped die, showing the strip bent into annularform. Fig. V is a side elevation of a pipe-coupling or a pipe afterbeing welded. Fig. V1 is a side elevation of an ordinary shear, partlybroken away. Fig. VII is a side elevation of a bending-block, showingthe end of a strip bent therein.

Our invention is particularly adapted to the manufacture ofpipe-couplings, but may advantageously be employed in making a greatvariety of tubular articles, including pipe.

In the manufacture of pipe-couplings it has been the practice to shearlong strips of metal into suitable short lengths. The short strips werethen charged into a heating-furmace and usually heated to a brightcherry color. The strips would then be removed and while in ahighly-heated condition would bebent into annular form by means of rollsor mandrels', while the smaller sizes would be bent up by hand. Theskelp-coupling (as it would be termed) 'after'bei'ng bent into annularform is charged into a heating-furnace and heated to a welding heat,after which it is withdrawn and Welded. It would now be known as acoupling-blank. The couplingblank is reamed out and tapped, after whichit is known to the trade as a pipe-con pling.

By the steps of our process, as will be subsequently described, themanufacture of tubular articles from metal skelp is simplified, theoutput increased, skilled labor dispensed with, the wear and tear of thecutters, taps, and dies reduced, and the resultant product is producedat a less cost than by prior processes.

Our process bends into circular form skelp metal used in the manufactureof tubular bodies without heating it, thus reducing the oxidation of thefinished annular blank to a minimum and by a less number of operationsthan heretofore used. We will, however, describe our invention inconnection with the formation of a pipe-coupling.

In the drawings accompanying this specification, 1 represents a skelpstrip before being bent at one end or edge.

2 represents a skelp strip having a curved end 3.

4 is a shear-knife for bending and severing the strip into proper formand lengths, so that they can be bent into tubular form.

In the form of our invention shown in Fig. II the lower die or anvil iscurved on the side next to the knife. The skelp will not be supported soas to cut off until it is bent by the knife, so that it lies upon theanvil at the side next to the knife.

5 represents an arc-shaped die.

6 represents a strip bentinto tubular form.

7 is a power-ram for pushing the forward end 3 of strip 2 around the die5.

The steps of the process are thus performed, reference being bad to Fig.II: Askelp strip 1 is inserted between the shears t and 4t. Shear-knife4 descends, bends the strip, and cuts off the projecting end thatisbeyond the bend. The skelp strip is now the shape indicated by 1 and 3in Fig. II. The operator now feeds the strip forward regularly betweenthe shears. The shears bend a portion of the strip to the desired arerequired and while the overhanging portion of the strip is beingsevered, thus approximately simultaneously bending and severing thestrip 2, as indicated in Fig. II. The severed strip 2 is placed on thetable 5 of arc-shaped die 5. Ram 7 travels forward and coming intocontact with the rear end of strip 2 pushes the strip forward and causesthe curved end 3 of the strip to travel around the arc-shaped die 5,bending and forming the strip 2 into a skelp-coupling, as shown in Fig.IV. The skelp-coupling is removed from the die 5 and charged into awelding-furnace, and after being properly heated it is removed andwelded by any of the well-known methods into a couplingblank or tubulararticle, as indicated in Fig. V.

Mechanically and preferably there are but two movements required in theprocess of forming tubular skelp articles by our process-viz., thedownward stroke of the knife and the forward movement of the ram.However, We have shown in the drawings, Figs. VI and VII, a shear forsevering the strip and separate means for bending one of the ends of thesevered strip when these two steps are performed as separate operations.

Strip 2, as indicated in Fig. II, would be used for lap-weld articles,while the strip GEORGE G. BLAKEY. ROBERT O. BLAKEY.

Witnesses:

RUssEL P. SULLIVAN, WM. B. ARMSTRONG.

